Community members in Santa Cruz organizing as the "Movement for Housing Justice" are preparing to gather signatures for a proposed renter protection ballot initiative in the City of Santa Cruz. Signature gathering for the initiative could begin in early February.

The Movement for Housing Justice website describes their goals on their website:

A broad-based coalition of community organizations and activists is championing a Renter Protection Ballot Initiative for the City of Santa Cruz. We will put an initiative on the November 2018 ballot that includes rent stabilization, eviction protections, and the formation of an elected “Rent Board” which will handle the regulation of rent prices and evictions.

In order to win such an effort, we will collect 8,000 signatures within 5 months, from February through June 2018. We will then contact thousands of voters in order to turn out enough supporters in November 2018 for our initiative to win.